El-Hadji Diouf seldom has nice things to say about Liverpool, but when he does, it’s normally about his compatriot Sadio Mané.
With the Ballon d’Or right around the corner and the 30 nominees now announced, the former forward has stepped up his campaigning to try and get the Senegalese star as high up the rankings as possible, dismissing one of the favourites along the way.
Interviewed by Le Parisien, he said: “I think Sadio Mané had a better year than Kylian Mbappé. He deserves the Ballon d’Or more on a personal and collective point of view. We can’t compare the French and English leagues. There’s more effort required in the Premier League”.
In fact, he doesn’t think the 20-year-old should even be in the top three, despite his impressive 39 goals and 17 assists in 43 appearances last season, including four goals and five assists in eight Champions League games.
Diouf continued: “For me, the podium would be Lionel Messi, Virgil Van Dijk and Mané just by the leagues they play in. You know that to win the Ballon d’Or, you have to leave France. The only to have done it while being in Ligue 1 is Jean-Pierre Papin, and he was in a Marseille team that played the Champions League final”.
Despite this apparent dismissal of any success Mbappé might have earned, including a World Cup win (“he won it because of the team and his manager”), that isn’t to say Diouf feels the youngster won’t ever deserve to win it.
He just thinks Mané, Van Dijk and Messi all deserve it more than him this time around.
